Well since the last time I wrote I have celebrated my birthday in style and had a nice vacation to boot! My husband worked so hard to give a me a "Surprise Birthday" party and he really succeeded. It was a surprise party with a beach theme at a seashore restaurant. One of my brothers even sponsored having one of our son's come from Colorado to New York with his family to surprise me. I hear from so many of my friends how we are all so busy that we just never have a chance to get together....that is surely the truth. I am glad that I had the birthday so everyone could get together.

As I said, my husband and I also took a week's vacation to the Outer Banks in North Carolina recently. It was the perfect place to go in the "off season." We got to sightsee and hang out on the beach in beautiful weather. One of the things that impressed me in all of the souvenir shops was the monogrammed mugs and towels of course. It was very popular to get one of those mugs from the craft store that you can take apart and insert your favorite picture in. The creative folks inserted a striking piece of fabric like black with white polka dots and then put a hot pink monogram in the center. It was fun and a great gift. The collection also included key rings and luggage tags with an embroidered initial.

I am still keeping up with Project Runway and I have to be honest I now have a Facebook friendship with one of the contestants, Christopher Straub. He is so nice and I do love his creations. I just had to ask him how he made ruffles on his paper evening gown last week and he quickly shot me a link to his Facebook page so that I could have a closer look. He sure does have my curiosity each week for what he is going to create. During my recent trip to the Rachael Ray show, Chris was one of the featured Project Runway participants who got to show his creativity when it came to making a garment out of things found in the kitchen. What he did with a head of cabbage and Chinese food “to go” boxes was just so much fun. At that point Chris did not need to use the Brother machines that were on the show but he did jump right in and help the other gals who were sewing on tin foil and paper napkins to make cute little dresses. Each of the contestants were totally impressed at how easy it is to use the Brother NS-40. The show will have already been broadcast when you read this blog. I was sworn to secrecy and could not tell anyone what was going to happen on Oct. 1. Sorry...! ...Okay the show has now aired and I can tell you that he won the Racheal Ray challenge. Lucky guy!

In the middle of October I will be heading to Fashion Week in St. Louis and I really can't wait to see what that is going to be like. I am supposed to be meeting up with the DIY-Style Chicks. I have known one of the young ladies since she is about 10 years old and now she has her own cool web cast. You can see all that they have at www.diystyle.net The gals love to use the Brother PE-900D on the show as well. It's such a cool little machine I can't blame them. Check out the cool sewing projects on their site as well.

Before I close, I wanted to share a photo that I took at a quilt show recently. As it happened, Brother sponsored a class and that meant that the consumers all used our machines in the Brother classrooms. I was so impressed by one gal who whipped out her handy dandy cutting mat that fit perfectly on the extension table for the Brother QC-1000. All she had to do was slide her fabric over to the mat for quick rotary cutting and measuring. I just thought that was so cool. At lunch today we were saying how impressive the QC-1000 is at quilting and sewing. The oversized extension table makes this machine have one of the largest sewing areas in the industry and when the over-sized thread spool stand is attached...you are ready to quilt for hours. This machine will be featured in the classrooms at the International Quilt Show from Oct. 10-18 in Houston, Texas. There will be a handy Brother drop-in room at the show if you want to sit down and give this machine a test drive!